Aggression/Fear/Socialization

[DogPaddle]

Zaphod is . . . skittish. I don't know how else to explain it. Sometimes he hides and barks (hackles up) when exposed to new things. Sometimes he stands and peers intently and barks (hackles up) when exposed to new things. Sometimes he charges barking (hackles up) towards new dogs (doesn't get far 'cause he's always leashed - no charging at people although he will bark and raise hackles if someone enters the house without me letting them in and I personally would not want that to change.) Sometimes he gladly invites new doggies to play. I have been working on socialization and we will be having a trainer who does one session in home trouble shooting come by in early October but he relys a lot on owner impression and I'm confused. I don't mean to make it sound like a big deal its only an occaisional problem and he calms down fairly easily its just that I don't want it to become a big deal and right now I am unable to take Zaphod on canoe trips and feel guilty about it because I can and do take Kavik.

My question is - does it sound like fear, dog aggression, slow socialization or what?

[Annushka]

Mmmmm... Asting does like that because of fear even after a great socialization I did. :-? Maybe, try socializing more...

[imported_Cassie]

Some dogs are just not as confident as others....some dogs (for example my Rottie) when faced with some thing new is very confident and investigates...I also have Newfoundland dogs a couple of them were very fearful of new things...men would have one of my Newf's in a panic, a person wearing a ball cap would have another one hiding etc. the key is to build the dogs confidence & do not praise the insecurity by petting her or talking gently to her...this can be viewed by the dog as "my master is comforting me, so there must be a good reason...that thing will probably hurt me" building a dogs confidence can take a long time...one of my Newf's is now going on 8 years old...I have owned her since she was 15 months...she is only now displaying a confident nature, it amazes me that she will actually run up to strange people and want to be made of...that was not what she was like when I first got her...I never forced her to do any thing that made her uncomfortable...and people were always advised just to ignore her when visiting my house, she would hide in the bedroom for quite some time while my other dogs where out fussing over my company...some times she would quietly come out and sniff the person...but as soon as they tried to pet her she would run back into my bed room as if the devil was after her.
It can take quite some time...and some dogs just don't have the confidence other dogs have....I found obedience helped a great deal...as I could socialize her with other dogs and people, but, she was doing activities she knew...like sit etc and this helped her focus on me and not the fact that there were threatening things surrounding her...she got lots of praise for doing her obedience well...I praised her success and when she was frightened of new things I just ignored it and went about every thing normally....my other dogs being confident have helped as well.